What affects the taste of tap water?

The tap from the Waitsburg cemetery. Even the dead people get to benefit. (photo by J.C. Westbrook)

I don’t drink a lot of water, mainly because I’ve never really loved the taste. That, and I’ve always thought the whole “8 glasses a day” thing is bullshit. On a trip to Walla Walla wine country a couple of weeks ago, however, we stopped in a quiet little town called Waitsburg that is a dead ringer for Radiator Springs (from the Pixar movie “Cars”). We had a delectable dinner at the phenomenal Jimgermanbar but perhaps the most amazing part of the meal for me was the tap water. It was the first time in my life I ever remember thinking to myself how great a glass of water tasted.

Pure, zero flavor wetness without even a hint of aftertaste. Even at room temperature.

I asked our waitress about it and she said people comment about it a lot so I had her pour me two magnum bottles full and I brought it home (well, Tiffehr brought it home). Upon arriving back in Seattle, I had a few co-workers taste it and they also had positive reviews. Then I did a blind taste-test at home and it won with flying colors.

Lots of interesting stuff in there. I’m convinced this water is extremely pure and contains very little mineral content, and now I want to have it tested. Anybody know what the easiest way to do this is? Are there local labs that will charge you a few bucks to quench your obsessive curiosities? If so, I’m all over it… and will report the results back here of course.

I think the easiest experiment to start with is a PH test. Buy some PH testing strips to find out if it’s more acidic or alkaline. If it’s so good and pure, it should be close to 7. Based on results, you could probably start to look into which materials are pushing the PH one way or the other.

The self home test kit we use to test water from the well is a Choline & PH Kit by Aqua Quip.

If you want to send your water out to have it tested by a professional you may want to consider getting a company that has passed been accredited to analyze drinking water through the Department of Ecology.

The thing is that what passes for drinking water and what causes the differences in taste in different waters are two very different matters. A pH test will basically tell you nothing at all about the taste qualities of the water.

All in all Finland has very good tap water (Evian and most other high-end bottled water’s have more of a taste than common Finnish tapwater.) But even here from place to place you can taste differences. It depends a lot on the water source (a muddy river as a source will have some muddy taste come through). The most important thing to find out on what is affecting the taste of the water is, as you’ve already learned, the minerals it contains.

But as I said, the standards for drinking water still leave lots of leeway for taste influencing minerals. The best water I’ve tasted comes from ground water wells or springs in moraine or till based ground.

As Julian said, a lot of countrys use a lot of chlorine in the water, to deal with bacterias. This is where most of the bad taste in the water comes from. You should try tasting fresh water from a running river next time you are out in the forest!

Pure distilled water (no minerals) acctually taste rather boring / not very good. It’s the minerals which gives it taste!

I keep on hearing about great NYC tap water, but my experience with tap water has always been very poor. Horrible after taste that leaves my throat feeling like it’s got something stuck in it. I much prefer water elsewhere in the country to NYC water.

How the municipality processes the water is important. We have a lime processing plant (quick overview here: http://water.me.vccs.edu/concepts/softeninglime.html). Our water is soft, but not softened down to zero. The source is roughly 300ppm and after processing comes out around 150ppm, which is a measurement of how much Calcium Carbonate is in the water. The pH is raised very high during processing, then brought back down to around 8.9, which I am told is best for smell and taste, and won’t corrode your pipes. As some have suggested, these properties are easily tested with an inexpensive water test kit, available at your local pet store and online.

I know all of this because I called my city water department. Everywhere I’ve lived, these folks have been kind and informative, some even quite excited to talk with me (working for the water department apparently isn’t that glamorous and these people want attention in their jobs, who knew?). In the city of my current residence, I’ve even been to the plant and met the people, tested some water, and learned a bit more about it in the process. My city also publishes a detailed annual water report.

So, look up the Waitsburg water department (if they have one; they may get their water from a nearby municipality or third party) and give them a call. No doubt, they know their water better than anyone—where it came from, what they do to it, and why.

Full disclosure: I have some semi-aquatic pets. I am required to know properties of the water so that I can adjust as necessary for their habitat. I adjust the pH to around 7.5 and add trace minerals to the water to increase hardness. Also, chlorine eventually kills smaller animals, so that gets neutralized. A scoop of this, a cap-full of that, and we’re all set.

Aside: Reverse-osmosis combined with UV sterilization produces pretty vanilla water, but just like iodine is added to salt, you have to add some minerals back in or we would all get rickets. There’s a RO water dispenser outside my grocery… have you tried RO water, Mike?

Very pure water is disgusting – it’s very dry tasting. You need minerals to smooth it out.

Softwater tastes smoother and crisper than hard water. High levels of calcium and magnesium make hard water (you will spot this if limescale is a problem in your area). I see from Wikipedia that “More than 85% of American homes have hard water.” Poor you!

Putting fluoride and chlorine in the water supply is insane. Both are poisonous in large quantities and there’s no way to control dosage.

I’m not sure if they do such small samples, but Frontier Geosciences would be a good place to start (http://www.frontiergeosciences.com/), and they are a Seattle company too. I used to do temp work there, and they basically have the best labs/procedures around for testing water, and they are awesome people, so it’s worth a shot.

For the record, the best water I’ve ever had was from Ames, IA. We would stop at a friends house every time we drove by just to fill up a couple gallon jugs of tapwater to bring with us. Ahhh, the good old days.

We had very very good tasting water from a private well. Recently something knocked out a electrical relay in the well pump. It did not hurt the pump. After the relay was replaced you could smell the water from the tap, and you could not even make coffee from it if taste so bad. It had a flat taste and kind of a chemical smell. What happened?

I feel sorry for you Americans and your water situation !! I live in Canada do you know where that is ? I’ve met lots of people from the states that couldn’t even tell me where Edmonton is …..lol no joke!! Anyway I live on Vancouver island and literally drink the water right out of the streams and the water that comes from the tap Is phenomenal !! It is bacicly untreated filtered water straight from the beautiful qualicum river about 5 miles down the road !! The same place I catch 30lb salmon and crawfish that make me drool !!